Steamboat 'soon' to be razed on Canandaigua lakefront

Sunday

Oct 13, 2013 at 5:10 AM

By Scott Pukosspukos@messengerpostmedia.com

CANANDAIGUA — Demolition on the Steamboat Landing restaurant is scheduled to begin “soon,” said owner David Genecco. The building closed in February to make way for the Canandaigua Finger Lakes Resort — a proposed five-story, 60-foot structure with 111 rooms and a conference center.

Genecco did not elaborate on exactly when the demolition would begin.

According to David LeClair, a code enforcement officer with the city of Canandaigua, as of Oct. 11, a demolition permit and site development permit were completed and available for the owner to pick up from the city offices.

Though Genecco did not specify a target date to begin construction on the 205 Lakeshore Drive hotel, his business partner — Bob Murphy, the owner of Macedon Excavating and Paving, Inc. — previously stated that they would like to see the project completed by 2015.

Before construction, Genecco and Murphy sought tax incentives to help reduce cost. The Ontario County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) voted Sept. 23 to approve the request to waive the sales tax associated with construction of the building and to waive the mortgage recording tax.

However, the vote was nixed when IDA members discovered that the public had not been notified of the hearing until the day the vote passed.

In a previous email, IDA Executive Director Michael Manikowski stated due to an internal error, the IDA requested that the public hearing run in Ontario County newspapers — including the Daily Messenger — Sept. 23, rather than Sept. 12, as originally intended.

According to a cost-benefit analysis compiled by the IDA, hotel investors North Star Funding Solutions requested sales tax and mortgage recording tax abatements before moving forward.

That cost-benefit analysis lists the total project cost as just under $33 million. Additionally, the study said the project would add 70 jobs to the area. Aside from those jobs, the IDA document states that construction of the hotel and conference center would generate about 227 temporary jobs.

If you go

WHAT Public hearing on Canandaigua Finger Lakes Resort tax incentives

WHEN 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15

WHERE The economic development conference room in the Ontario County Municipal Building, 20 Ontario St., Canandaigua